Practical skills to communicate confidently online

We've been training, coaching and strategising around digital engagement since 2010, to help teams develop the confidence to hold conversations online, as part of their corporate communications, campaigning and policymaking work.

We find out what is really holding back an organisation, and how to overcome fears and concerns whether at board level or among junior teams. Our most satisfying work is seeing organisations grow in confidence, engage with their audiences and go beyond broadcasting messages.

We have helped organisations to research their audiences online, plan engagement strategies, monitor and respond to online conversations. And we have the skills and infrastructure to help you deploy digital tools including blogs, social media and microsites to support engagement and consultation.

We help with:

researching your online audience

planning for engagement

preparing and publishing digital-friendly consultations and content

convening and facilitating online conversations

training and skills development for your team

Planning

Identifying audiences, potential advocates, critics and how to handle the ensuing conversation

Facilitating

Websites that help you explain your purpose and encourage people to get involved in a discussion

Training

Enabling you and your colleagues to have conversations with your customers and stakeholders

In the modern age, smart organisations facilitate conversations with staff, rather than dictating to them. Transport for London launched an engagement programme with 6,000 station staff using our Read+Comment discussion platform, enabling staff and managers to learn and discuss what the organisations Fit For Future Stations programme means for them individually. They distinguished discussion -…

The Coalition Agreement of 2010 committed the Government to introducing “a new ‘public reading stage’ for bills to give the public an opportunity to comment on proposed legislation online.” We were asked by the Government Digital Service to rapidly prototype a new approach to commenting on a pilot for the PRS, designed to seek comments on…

British diplomats have interesting stories to tell. The Foreign & Commonwealth Office has been practising 'digital diplomacy' for a decade now, and features some of the UK government's most prolific and effective users of social media. A cornerstone of its strategy has been the 'Global Conversations' blog platform. When we got involved in 2011, this already had…

Lord Taylor's review of planning regulation delivered a short recommendations document which the Department wanted to make available for public comment, quickly and at low cost. Using our Read+Comment platform, we were able to publish the document in HTML form with comments enabled on each short section - making responses easy to contribute and analyse.…

A major property developer asked us to help identify online influencers in a very specific area of the UK, and advise on how to reach them. We used a combination of desktop research and low cost online tools to produce a shortlist of bloggers, Facebook administrators, local reporters and community managers. We also provided comprehensive advice on the…

A major UK broadcast organisation commissioned us to review how they currently use digital to promote their work, and identify opportunities to do more. Our client had limited resources, an audience clamouring to voice their opinion online, and a very enthusiastic board who wanted to see the organisation more active on social media. We spent some time working alongside…

We were commissioned by a Community Interest Company (CIC) to help them understand where they could promote a new online sexual health service, in two London boroughs. The diversity of their audience, and the sensitive nature of their service, meant that a variety of approaches needed to be tested: from clear calls to action on…